A Word of Thanks

Em and I are traveling again, so after publishing Emma’s post debut, and what a first post it was (!!!!), for the “This is Autism Flashblog” we got on an airplane. As we didn’t get to our hotel until after eight in the evening, we didn’t read all the lovely comments so many of you left until quite late. Thank you. As a parent it means a great deal to have such an outpouring of support and encouragement for Emma’s first post, particularly as it was a post that was incredibly personal. Emma wrote, “Thank you everyone” before falling asleep.

The flashblog has almost 250 posts at the moment. It was a wild success and shows the range and complexity of views about what exactly “autism” is. Anyone who hasn’t gone over there to read what others had to say, I encourage you to spend some time doing so.

There is so much I want to say about the flashblog, autism, grassroots protesting, being the parent of a child whose neurology I do not share, but have overlaps with, functioning labels, how we can all influence change, how the more of us who join in, the quicker these shifts will occur, why I keep showing up here day after day instead of sleeping for another couple of hours, but I don’t have time this morning as we have an appointment in another hour that we cannot be late for.

Thankfully I had the foresight to opt for a GPS system on our rental car and do not anticipate getting lost as I did the last time we made this trip. As a testament to this decision, Emma did not once shout from the backseat, “Oh no! We’re going the wrong way!” last night, for which I am extremely grateful.

I loved the “This is Autism Flashblog”. I wish we were able to participate, but my son was home sick yesterday. I spent a good portion of my morning today reading all the beautiful post that everyone had written. Everyone had such strong and powerful words. It’s so inspiring to see so many different people on the spectrum and their families coming together. I hope there will be more community blogs like this.